During the night between June 2 and 3, 1942 German policemen from the county centers of Lipovets and Turbov and from the district center Vinnitsa, together with Ukrainian auxiliary policemen, surrounded the town of Vakhnovka and forced all of the Jews living in the town into the building of the former Catholic Church. After all the Jews of all ages and both sexes were collected in the church, about 20 Jewish men were taken to dig a grave 2.5 kilometers from Vakhnovka, near the Turbov Forest. These 20 men were shot as soon as they finished digging the grave. Afterward, all the rest of Vakhnovka's Jews were taken to the grave on foot, being beaten with sticks on the way. When they arrived at the murder site, the victims were forced to strip naked, divided into groups and forced to lie down in the grave, and then shot. The young children were thrown into the grave alive. Many of the Jews were merely wounded but were buried together with the dead. The total number of victims of this massacre was about 400.

More information: Yad Vashem

The second murder operation against the Jews of Vakhnovka was apparently carried out on June 13, 1942, ten days after the first one. The police and the Germans arrested the remaining 50 Jews in Vakhnovka and shot them to death at the local Jewish cemetery. According to some testimonies, the details of the murder were the same as the ones of the previous shooting.

More information: Yad Vashem